The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim! Game of the year! Everyone's talkin' 'bout it! Get you some!
Maybe I got started due to hype, maybe that's why I didn't stop sooner. Whatever the reason, I made the choice to visit Skyrim and it's clear to me that I've overstayed my welcome. It's 2am, don't even get me started on how fucked up my sleep schedule already is, and now I lie down, sleepless after mailing Skyrim back to GameFly just hours ago. It's haunting me and calling me back, I have the urge to return to its foggy, sky-scraping mountains but I also feel stronger to resist now that I've put the nail in the coffin and shipped that fantasy to a place just as mystical - the inside of a blue post-box.
If it's not clear whether I enjoyed my 50 or so hours with Bethesda's current best-seller, that's because I'm not even clear on the matter. In fact, figuring it out is what's urged me to stay up past my curfew and write this. So let's start from the dreaded beginning, move to the ambiguous middle, and, hopefully, end with the satisfying conclusion...
Mass Effect 3, Sine Mora, King of Fighters XIII, Fez and Metal Slug. These were the games I was enjoying before I took on Skyrim. We have a game that's somewhat mastered narrative while, for the most part, got the whole action thing down, another game that has a wonderfully enrapturing story with beautiful set-pieces and tight action, one that's all about discovering a world without as much of an ounce of guidance, and two arcade games packed with "Go, go, go!" action. Then there's Skyrim, a game that strikes me as trying to be an older game with a new game feel.
